1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a dry-type cleaning device for cleaning by flying cleaning media and contacting or colliding the cleaning media with cleaning targets. More particularly, the present invention relates to a dry-type cleaning device that cleans the cleaning targets by contacting the cleaning media with any part of the cleaning targets, a dry-type cleaning chassis used in the dry-type cleaning device, and a dry-type cleaning method using the dry-type cleaning device.
For example, the present invention may be used for removing flux adhered to a masking fixture which may be called a dip pallet or a carrier pallet used in a process using a flow solder bath. Particularly, the present invention may be adapted to remove the flux adhered to narrow areas such as side surfaces of the cleaning targets and the vicinity of openings.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, fixtures for masking the regions other than the regions where soldering is to be performed have been widely used in the soldering process using a flow solder bath. Those masking fixtures (a.k.a. the dip pallet and the carrier pallet), however, are required to be periodically cleaned so as to avoid the degradation of the masking accuracy which may be degraded by the flux accumulated on the surface of the masking fixtures.
Typically, such cleaning may be performed by dipping the fixture into a solvent. Therefore, a larger amount of solvent may be required to be used. As a result, the cost may be increased and the operator's workload may be heavy. There is a known technique to spray the solvent onto the cleaning objects without dipping. This method, however, may not overcome the problem that a larger amount of solvent is required.
To overcome the problem, there has been known a dry-type cleaning device that cleans the cleaning targets by contacting flying cleaning media with the cleaning targets. Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 4-83567 and 60-188123 (Patent Documents 1 and 2, respectively) disclose a cleaning method for cleaning the cleaning targets by flying the cleaning media in the circumferential direction in a cylindrical container (chassis) by the circulating air flow of compressed air and colliding the flying cleaning media with the cleaning targets disposed at the opening formed on the side surface of the cylindrical container. However, in this method, the circulating air flow is caused by the compressed air. Because of this feature, when the cleaning targets are separated from the opening of the container (i.e. cleaning device), some of the cleaning media may leak through the opening.
To overcome this problem, in Patent Document 1, a net member is provided at the opening to prevent the leakage of the cleaning media. However, due to the net member, the energy of the cleaning media when the cleaning media collid with the cleaning targets may be reduced. Further, the cleaning media may be stopped by the net member. As a result, the cleaning performance may be reduced.
Further, in Patent Document 2, a cap member that caps the opening is provided to prevent the leakage of the cleaning media through the opening. This cap member, however, may cause an operator to promptly operate the cap member upon separating the cleaning targets from the opening. As a result, extra workload and attention may become necessary, the device may have to have a complicated mechanism, the operation of the cleaning device may become much more difficult, and the cleaning device may be more likely to be broken.
For related art, reference may be made to Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-226394.